Wednesday, June 29, 2016

This is Lynn’s City Slicker quilt which is one of our Highway 10 Designs patterns. She used the Key Lime Bali Pop and a light green batik background. Lynn requested her favorite pantograph, Bayside and Quilters Dream Blend batting. I also used a light green So Fine thread.

This is my last quilt for June and I’m looking forward to my two month summer break. I have already been playing with some fabric dyeing and have a few personal projects that I’ll be sharing over the summer.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

This is Terry’s Belle Wave quilt and you can find the free downloadable pattern from Art Gallery Fabrics here. I really like the dark charcoal background Terry used as it allows the fabrics to really shine! She asked for a swirly panto so I chose Plush. I used a dark grey So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.

Friday, June 24, 2016

This is Laura’s Urban Pods quilt and it is a pattern by Sew Kind of Wonderful. I have made a lot of these quilt but not Urban Pods yet so it was fun to quilt!

Laura is the co-owner of a quilt shop in Boise, Idaho called The Quilt Crossing and this will likely be a sample in their shop.

I have the SKW Curvit Longarm Ruler that is the same curve as the Quick Curve Ruler, which the pattern is made with, so I used it to stitch in the ditch all the curves. That really allowed the pod shapes to pop. I did U-Turns in the light grey curves and feather motifs in the pods. I didn’t want to quilt the pods too heavy as I liked how they popped up from the light curves.

I used three different So Fine thread colours. Light grey on the curves, a forest green in the pieced pods and a darker green in the solid pods. Batting is Quilters Dream Blend.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

The last two Saturdays I have been teaching a beginner quilting class at our local guild. We advertise this class at our Quilt Show to entice new members to join and see if they would enjoy quilting. I love helping new quilters fall in love with quilting and hearing them take about the next quilt they want to make even though they haven’t finished the first one! Those ones have definitely caught the quilting bug! I asked the ladies to bring their quilt tops outside for a group picture before we started basting and quilting and it turned out great! It was a bit windy but you know me and how much I love to take outdoor pictures. I was just so pleased they agreed to do this. I had 15 students in the class and I taught our Highway 10 Designs pattern Quarter Sections which worked out great. Most made the baby size but a few wanted to make the lap size.

Its fun to see the variety of fabrics they chose as they all turned out so different.

By the time the class was over most had the center quilted and were decided on how to quilt their borders. They got a lesson on binding and I hope to see them completed and at our guilds Show and Tell in the future.

Friday, June 17, 2016

This is Eileen’s City Slicker quilt and she used a 2 1/2” batik strip set from Desert Stitching called Agave. We decided on Whirlygig for the pantograph, Dream Blend batting and a yellow So Fine thread. The background fabric is a very light green but it was hard to photograph the true colour.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

This is Kerri’s Just Call Me Modern quilt and it is a pattern by Judi Madsen. We discussed a few quilting options for this quilt and I was very honest about the costs of custom as I think is important to be upfront about the difference before getting a client excited about an idea. The range can go from $150 for a panto design to $1000 for custom, and even higher if you want the style of quilting Judi did on her sample as that involved a lot of planning, marking and many hours of quilting. The majority of my clients just want to use or gift their quilts, they are not for show, so really like the panto designs and I enjoy quilting them. I also find custom takes a toll on my back and shoulders so have been limiting this type of work to one or two a month. But I do enjoy the challenge of custom once in awhile and just need to learn to pace myself so I don’t end up with knots in my shoulders!

I gave Kerri some panto options and she picked Starlight for the panto. This was a fantastic choice as it really added a lovely texture but lets the pieced shine!

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

This is Juliana’s Tifton Tiles quilt and you can find the free tutorial on how to make it here. The fabric collection is called Meadow Bloom.

I used Hearts In Bloom for the pantograph as the quilt is a gift for a nine year old girl. The batting is Quilters Dream Blend, the thread is White So Fine and White Bottom Line on the back. The backing is s fun polka dot pink Minkie!

Monday, June 13, 2016

I did a bit of piecing this weekend and made a new City Slicker quilt out of a Cantik Batiks strip set called Cassiopeia. I wanted a summer version of this quilt to quilt over my summer break. But that’s not the exciting news! Lori and I were approached by Checker Distributors this spring asking if we would be interested in having them carry our Highway 10 Designs patterns! There was a lot to learn about adding bar codes, find a new printing company, etc but we did it and are now listed on the Checker web site.

This means quilt shops across Canada, the US and Internationally can now carry our patterns! So if you like our patterns, I hope you will help us spread the word and tell your local quilt shops about us! We have a 5 star rating on our Etsy shop and the dozen shops in our area that carry our patterns said our instructions are excellent and the patterns kit up well!

Here are a few quilt shops samples have made with our patterns. These ones are from Fabriculous.

Friday, June 10, 2016

I had some great luck today and noticed an otter on my neighbors dock so ran and
got my camera! I watched him rolling around on the dock like a puppy and I took some
pictures and video this time! The sounds you hear in the video are my camera trying to focus, I need to figure out how to turn that off

I also had some fun using my new underwater camera and was playing with the perch under our dock. I usually see 5 to 10 swimming around the dock but once I put the camera in the water it is very surprising to see how many are really under there! All these perch are 6" to 8" long. I thought I did a good job filming them as I was just holding the camera underwater and couldn't see what I was filming until I downloaded the video to my computer.

After having my hand in the water for less than a minute the fish started to converge around the bright yellow camera! This guy wanted a selfie and then nibbled on my hand!

Follow on bloglovin

Follow me on Instagram

Tamarack Shack Website

About Me

I have been quilting for over 20 years and have turned my passion for quilting into a home business. Tamarack Shack Longarm Quilting opened it's doors January 2009 on the shores of Schist Lake in Northern Manitoba. I have recently moved to Emo, ON and looking forward to discovering all the beauty of the area and meeting new quilters.
This blog is where I share photos of my quilts as well as my clients quilts. I also enjoy dyeing fabric especially snow dyeing as we have snow 6 months of the year. I have thrown in few personal stories about living on the shores of Schist Lake and now I'm ready to explore and share photos of the area around Emo, Ontario as life isn't all about quilting.
Please feel free to contact me at tamarackshack1@gmail.com